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Whether or not you agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there’s a good chance you have a favorite breakfast food (and one that you would rather avoid). But when you’re looking at foods through the lens of skincare benefits, you may find your options change a bit. More youthful-looking skin (if that is your ultimate desire) doesn’t start from the outside in — creams are great, but nutrients are even better. Starting your day with a breakfast that is plentiful in skin-loving vitamins and minerals is an excellent way to keep your skin looking amazing, but so is knowing which foods to avoid. This is the one breakfast food no one over 50 should be having, according to experts, if your goal is to avoid sagging skin.
Bacon
It’s as American as apple pie and the taste is out of this world, but if your skin is a concern, adding fried bacon and processed meats to your breakfast isn’t the best idea, according to some health experts. “Bacon is a staple breakfast in a lot of American households which is not an ideal healthy breakfast,” says Issac Roberston, a fitness trainer and co-founder at TotalShape. “Processed meats like bacon and pepperoni have high nitrate content and high saturated fat content, which are very harmful to skin and, in the long run, cause skin aging and an increased number of wrinkles.
It isn’t simply the fact that it’s processed meat that is contributing to worse skin outcomes — frying foods can also wreak havoc on your complexion. “Items that are fried in oil can cause severe damage to your skin and stomach,” says health expert Megan Ayala at Fitness & Health at Patricia and Carolyn. “It is because the food that is deep-fried releases radicals which are very dangerous. The release of radicals fastens your aging process because of a concept known as cross-linking, which directly affects your DNA and weakens your cells. So fried foods, like French fries, are never a good option.”
Neither, unfortunately is sugar. No matter how delicious and convenient those cereals and quick carb options might be, they aren’t the best for skin.
“Sugary foods like breakfast doughnuts, pastries, and muffins and coffee are also quite popular breakfast combos,” Robertson says. “They are refined carbs and have a high content of sugar which is directly connected to the development of wrinkles. High sugar food, in general, speeds up the aging process and hence causes sagging of the skin.”
You may be wondering: great, I know all of the foods that are off limits, but what about breakfast foods that can actually benefit skin? Think proteins like eggs, long-lasting carbs like oatmeal, and plenty of fresh veggies and fruits. In fact, Ayala cites fresh fruit juice as one of your best breakfast options. “The carrot and beetroot juice are among the finest elixirs globally, and it's easy to see why,” Ayala says. “Beetroot is high in essential elements such as water, calcium, iron, folic acid, magnesium, and vitamin C; all believed to enhance and cleanse the bloodstream, resulting in bright skin. Vitamin A in carrots helps to prevent acne, wrinkling, discoloration, and sagging skin.”
